Making Impressions
by Shade Embry
Summary: Doggett's old partner meets Follmer and everyone wants to know what happened.


TITLE: Making Impressions  
AUTHOR: Brittany "Thespis" Frederick  
RATING: PG for language  
CATEGORY: Contains Doggett, Reyes, Follmer and Other  
character. Conversationfic.  
SUMMARY: Everyone has one chance to make a first  
impression. Those who manage to make something out of  
it are one step ahead in the game.  
E-MAIL: baltimorelt@yahoo.com  
Standard disclaimer applies. Plus, anything I created  
is mine, though I'll happily allow archiving as long  
as you tell me where. I'm not sure if this is the  
first Follmer fic or not, but it's based solely on my  
theorizing, so it may not be what we're going to see  
in S9. I certainly hope that it is, though.  
  
Making Impressions  
by Thespis  
  
As she looked from her BLT to her superior at the next  
table to the passing traffic outside the window, she  
remembered a conversation she'd had with her partner  
on the day before.  
  
"So what do you think of the new guy?" John had asked  
her when she'd walked into the office after passing  
the man on the stairs coming down to the basement.  
  
"I don't know," she admitted. "I don't know him well  
enough to say." She paused. "Does he call you 'Agent  
Doggett' or what?"  
  
"Of course he does."  
  
"No, I meant how does he *say* it?" she said, closing  
the door lest the man they were talking about actually  
be within earshot. "Does he say it like Kersh, or like  
Scully does, or like Mulder used to? How does he  
stress it?"  
  
Doggett raised an eyebrow but acquiesced. "I can't say  
for sure. It's almost neutral. Almost. Like he's not  
really sure about me."  
  
"Monica knows him, wouldn't she have --" Stark  
started, then stopped. "That's got to be it, then."  
  
"It what?"  
  
"He and Monica were together once, right? So he's  
probably heard of you only through her. And maybe he's  
jealous."  
  
"Of the relationship I don't have with her?" Her  
partner still wasn't buying it.  
  
Stark shrugged. "Unlike in regard to you, I don't  
claim to know how he thinks."  
  
But that had been yesterday, and this was today.  
Normally, John would be across from her, but he'd been  
called up on something and had promised to join her  
for dinner at the very least. Monica and Scully were  
both busy on other things, too, so Stark was actually  
alone. Alone enough to look across again and wonder  
whose opinion to take in hand: hers, her partner's, or  
the one Monica had given at the vending machines just  
before lunch yesterday.  
  
"What'd I miss this morning?" she'd asked Stark.  
  
"Nothing much. John wanted to know what I thought of  
the new guy."  
  
Monica had paused. "What, did you two have a  
conversation?"  
  
"Hardly, I passed him on the stairs."  
  
"Well, I'll tell you something -- he remembers every  
little thing. And he doesn't let go of anything very  
easily." Reyes had stared into the recesses of her  
soda can very briefly, and her eyes had then met  
Stark's with an infinite sadness. "He'll tell you his  
theories about why I cut and ran, Stark -- but woman  
to woman, friend to friend -- none of them are true."  
  
Stark nodded, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.  
"You know I believe you."  
  
"I know." Monica smiled. "Don't worry about him."  
  
But the truth was that now, taking another bite of  
bacon, lettuce and tomato, that reflecting on these  
quick dialogues in the office and the hall on the day  
before had caused Stark to worry. Office rumor, office  
whispers, didn't bother her. They'd been on her heels  
like an albatross when she first showed up at the  
Bureau and she'd fought them down. But she had had the  
greatest help, too. She stared at her sandwich. If  
only these things were like food, she ruminated. You  
could put them away and deal with them later.  
  
"Agent Patrick, right?"  
  
Stark's thoughts snapped. "Right. Can I help you with  
something, Assistant Director?"  
  
As he joined her at her table, Follmer gave her a  
small smile. "If I needed something, I wouldn't ask  
you on the lunch hour."  
  
She smirked. "Yeah, I'll try to remember that."  
  
"I've heard a lot about you."  
  
"You have?" Stark blinked. She really shouldn't be  
surprised, with as much as she'd done with John and  
Monica, and even Scully and Mulder. "I didn't know."  
  
"Agents Doggett and Reyes had a lot of good things to  
say about you. They say you're a fighter. They told  
me," and he said this next part carefully, as if  
worried he would offend her, "about what you did for  
your partner. Sacrificed your career in Criminal  
Investigations for him."  
  
"Right." Stark nodded. "It was the right thing."  
  
"I know that." Follmer paused. "Let me tell you  
something, Agent Patrick. When you care about someone  
enough, there is never too far to go. It's when you  
cross the line emotionally that things become  
dangerous for everyone involved. I know how deeply you  
feel for your partner. I know what you've done for him  
-- everything's in your record. I've heard every  
story. And if you're going to keep it that way, you're  
going to be fine. Just don't go beyond that."  
  
She wondered if he was trying to give her advice or  
just ranting. "We've never considered it and we don't  
plan to, sir," she told him. "We're aware of the  
risks."  
  
He nodded. "And you think you know each and every one  
of them until you break them all. And then you think  
you see things you don't. And you keep waiting. And  
you wait, and you wait, and it never happens and  
that's when you're as good as over."  
  
She took a deep breath.  
  
"That's how it ended, isn't it?" she said slowly. "You  
thought you saw something in her you didn't and you  
ended up waiting and it never materialized."  
  
He nodded, but when he spoke he was trying to be  
funny, perhaps to hide the pain she saw in his eyes,  
even though he'd stopped looking directly at her.  
"You're a quick learner."  
  
"Thank you, sir." Pause. "If it's any consolation ...  
she told me not to worry about you."  
  
He finally met her eyes. "I know that the four of you  
will be fine," he told her. "Just remember that."  
  
"I will." She smiled. "I think we'll all be fine."  
  
Follmer smiled with her. And sitting there, thinking  
over it even as the conversation turned to happier  
things like Gator football and old case files from the  
vault, Stark decided that she had made up her mind  
about the Assistant Director. If he had put his faith  
in her after just passing her in the stairwell, then  
she could only do the same. And maybe he was right --  
they'd all be fine.  
  
END  
  
=====  
"Oh, for God's sake, please be somebody else."  
- Lewis Black  
Natalie: Two guys have ascended 5 miles into the sky. They walked up a wall of ice and are preparing to knock on the door of heaven itself. There's really no end to what we can do. You know what the trick is?   
Dan: What?   
Natalie: Get in the game!   
- "The Quality of Mercy at 29K", "Sports Night" 


End file.
